Email is here to stay and has proven to be a very effective way to drive engagement with consumers. Here are five things you should focus on to drive maximum engagement.

Is it easy on the eyes?Make sure that you have less text that is spaced out well and that your content is highlighted. Reduce the fine print to what is required and put in pictures that are relevant. Pictures help break the monotony of reading and help with cognition. Design your email well — think about putting pictures in a frame to make it look more pleasing. Do not stop with the email — create a mobile version and do not forget about your landing page.

Is your subject line compelling?The goal of your subject line is to draw the consumer in. Use powerful words and sentences that inspire action. Powerful words include: proven, exclusive, limited number, two more days, for our platinum segment and advanced tips. Test your subject line — first with your team, then conduct an A/B test before launching to the entire list.

Will it find the inbox?Marketers should monitor deliverability to ensure that the message is getting through to their consumers. Check the spam score, include multi-part messaging, avoid spam traps and spam words and keep checking your bounces. Make sure that you are honoring the subscribe and un-subscribe process. It is also important to ensure that the reputation of your IP addresses is aboveboard.

Are you looking at your numbers?Make it a habit to check the results of a campaign before scheduling the next campaign. Opens, clicks and conversions can be improved by looking at other factors. Monitor the time between an email being sent and the email being opened. Look at the quality and length of your subject lines. One of the best things you can do is to predict your results and then evaluate the difference to improve.

Does your consumer trust you?Every message you send and every open (and click) is a way for you to build up on your value proposition. Continue looking at branding, the consumer's attention span and your ability to convert the consumer to a customer. Your biggest success would be driven by focusing on getting the consumer to trust you — they need to learn to depend on you for important and relevant messaging.

Sundeep Kapur is an industry-recognized expert who has delivered keynote addresses, run panels and delivered “relevant, inspirational, and outstanding” education for organizations around the world. Kapur is also an avid user of social media, having leveraged words, pictures, and video into a conversational digital book. His daily dose of best practices can be found at www.EmailYogi.com, where he has more than 1,200 articles on best practices.

This article originally appeared on ClickZ and is used here with permission.

Want to improve your deliverability? ZoomInfo can check all of your email addresses for validity and provide new contacts (with recently validated addresses) that match the characteristics of your best customers. Find out more.